Mid-way through this decade, Mexico and Turkey had the highest inequality in incomes, followed by Portugal and the US. Denmark and Sweden were the most equal societies in terms of income disparity in the 30-nation study.
The UK was seventh in terms of inequality of disposable income – 8 per cent above the OECD average – using the Gini index, the most widely used measure of income inequality.
A few countries bucked the trend with France, Greece and Spain all enjoying a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor over the past 20 years. For the latter two, this period coincided with rapid growth of employment after their accession to the European Union in the mid-1980s.